The Triumph of St Thomas Aquinas (west wall)

1366 · Cappellone degli Spagnoli, Santa Maria Novella, Florence

religious

While the main thematic emphasis on the east wall is on the pastoral and missionary work of the Dominicans, the fresco on the west wall - which is generally known as the Triumph of St Thomas Aquinas, even if this is not an accurate description - has as its fundamental theme the scientific and academic contributions of the order, exemplified in the person of Aquinas. The composition is strictly schematic and joins a wealth of personifications and historical exempla in a serial and symmetric arrangement. In the middle of the upper section, St Thomas Aquinas, seated on a throne and surrounded by an aureole, presents an open book to the viewer.

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The Triumph of St Thomas Aquinas (west wall)

About the Artist

Andrea Da Firenze

Andrea da Firenze (Andrea Bonaiuti), Florentine painter. From January 1346 he was registered in the Arte dei Medici e Speziali in Florence. The earliest paintings that can be attributed to him suggest that he must have formed a close association with the workshop of Andrea di Cione. The small portable triptych of the Virgin and Child with Saints and Angels (centre panel, Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst; side panels of the Nativity and the Crucifixion, Houston,Museum of Fine Arts) shows the influence of Maso di Banco and of the painter of the Strozzi Chapel frescoes in the Chiostrino dei Morti, Santa Maria Novella, Florence. Andrea da Firenze is remembered mainly for his frescoes in the Spanish Chapel of Santa Maria Novella, Florence. This is a church of the Dominican Order, and the frescoes, illustrating the Triumph of the Faith and the Dominican doctrine, in both their severity and their meticulous detail, accorded with the expository style of the Dominican preaching friars. Andrea is last recorded in 1377 working on frescoes of the Life of St Raynerius in the Campo Santo at Pisa.

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